Santa’s Christmas gift to shoppers at Walmart

A Christmas surprise has come early to Walmart customers in the United Sates.

A generous Santa Claus figure has paid off more than NZ$50,000 of layby items in a Pennsylvania Walmart.

For store manager Ryan Kennedy, the phone call came out of the blue. A mysterious figure named only 'Santa B' offered to pay off the entire cost of his store's layby items.

"It was complete disbelief," Mr Kennedy told CNN. "It was definitely a great gesture. I was completely shocked."

Santa B told Mr Kennedy they wanted to pay off all of the layby items on hold, totalling NZ$64,833 (US$46,265).

The generous benefactor paid anonymously, using another one of their jolly elves to deliver the cheque to the store.

Mr Kennedy said when he called the 194 people with layby accounts to tell them they were paid off, "some individuals were just brought to tears".

Putting goods on layby is common at Christmas time, so individuals don't have to buy all their Christmas presents at once. Mr Kennedy told CNN many of the items paid off by Santa B were Christmas presents.

One of the residents of the town, Lewis Nancy Smith, posted on Facebook expressing her excitement over the secret Santa.

"I have heard of this happening in larger areas, but nothing exciting happens in our small town. This time it did."